This article presents 83 inspirational quotes from prominent Native American personalities underscoring the deep-rooted connection these communities have with nature and life.
Native American tribes are renowned for their harmony with the natural world, have a rich, yet often overlooked, history.
Through these quotes, readers can explore the wisdom and resilience of Native and Indigenous peoples, whose philosophies, though not always recorded, hold profound insights.
Every year, the Friday after Thanksgiving, known as Native American Heritage Day and the whole of November, designated as Native American Indian Heritage Month, honor these communities in the U.S.
These occasions are opportunities to delve into the diverse cultures, histories and contributions of different tribes, understand the challenges they’ve endured since their lands were colonized and be inspired by their resilience as embodied in their uplifting quotes.
Top 10 Native American Quotes
In an eagle there is all the wisdom of the world. ~ Lame Deer.
Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way. ~ Blackfoot.
Be careful when speaking. You create the world around you with your words. ~ Diné.
There is no death. Only a change of worlds. ~ Duwamish.
Force, no matter how concealed, begets resistance. ~ Lakota.
The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors. ~ Alaxchíia Ahú.
Old age is not as honorable as death, but most people want it. ~ Crow.
All dreams spin out from the same web. ~ Hopi Tribe.
We travel only as far and as high as our hearts will take us. ~ Unknown.
Most of us do not look as handsome to others as we do to ourselves. ~ Assiniboine.
Famous Native American Quotes
Don’t be afraid to cry. It will free your mind of sorrowful thoughts. ~ Hopi.
It’s impossible to write about Native life without humor, that’s how people maintain sanity. ~ Chris Eyre.
You can buy history, but you can’t buy a culture. ~ Nathan Mirts.
I salute the Light within your eyes, where the whole Universe dwells. ~ Native American.
In my tradition, to be noble is to give to those who have less. It is an issue of service and leadership. ~ Norbert Hill.
Although we are in different boats, you in your boat and we in our canoe, we share the same river of life. ~ Chief Oren Lyons.
All things share the same breath – the beast, the tree, the man, the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. ~ Chief Seattle.
Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. ~ Native American.
Best Native American Quotes
The weakness of the enemy makes our strength. ~ Cherokee.
Everyone who is successful must have dreamed of something. ~ Maricopa.
If this earth should ever be destroyed, it will be by desire, by the lust of pleasure and self-gratification. ~ Lame Deer.
Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. ~ Chief Tecumseh.
The Holy Land is everywhere. ~ Black Elk.
In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. ~ Iroquois Maxim.
It does not require many words to speak the truth. ~ Chief Joseph.
A frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. ~ American Proverb.
Popular Native American Quotes
We are going by you without fighting if you will let us, but we are going by you anyhow. ~ Chief Joseph.
You already possess everything necessary to become great. ~ Crow.
No Statue of Liberty ever greeted our arrival in this country. We did not, in fact, come to the United States at all. The United States came to us. ~ Luis Valdez.
To be native to a place we must learn to speak its language. ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer.
Poverty is a noose that strangles humility and breeds disrespect for God and man. ~ Sioux.
Lose your temper and you lose a friend; lie and you lose yourself. ~ Hopi.
Owning land is like owning the ocean, or the air. no one owns land. ~ Tamanend.
If I want my people to be free, Americans have to be free. ~ Russell Means.
People tend to forget that in our country, we’d pretty much all be immigrants, except for the Native Americans. ~ Amy Bloom.
When a white army battles Indians and wins, it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre. ~ Chiksika.
Related: National Native American Heritage Month Quotes and Boston Tea Party Quotes That Led to American Revolution
Deep Native American Quotes
It almost seems that nobody can hate America as much as native Americans. America needs new immigrants to love and cherish it. ~ Eric Hoffer.
Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins. ~ Cheyenne.
Day and night cannot dwell together. ~ Duwamish.
It is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand. ~ Apache.
May the stars carry your sadness away, May the flowers fill your heart with beauty, May hope forever wipe away your tears, and, above all, may silence make you strong. ~ Chief Dan George.
Profound Native American Quotes
There is but one secret to success: never give up. ~ Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Abuse no one and nothing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision. ~ Chief Tecumseh.
The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears. ~ Minquass Proverb.
Soon there will come from the rising sun a different kind of man from any have yet seen, who will bring with them a book and will teach you everything. ~ Spokan Prophet.
Our first teacher is our own heart. ~ Cheyenne.
You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep. ~ Navajo.
Those who have one foot in the canoe, and one foot on the shore, are going to fall into the river. ~ Tuscarora.
All who have died are equal. ~ Comanche.
Thought-Provoking Native American Quotes
Peace of mind is the meaning of life. ~ Talisa Santiago.
Our land is everything to us. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it – with their lives. ~ John Wooden Legs.
Where no one intrudes, many can live in harmony. ~ Chief Dan George.
The old ones say you can feel your spirit during a vision quest. ~ Dianne Harman.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide. ~ Chief Tecumseh.
If we wonder often, the gift of knowledge will come. ~ Arapaho.
Remember that your children are not your own but are lent to you by the Creator. ~ Mohawk.
I love the land of winding waters more then all the rest of the world. A man who would not love his father’s grave is worse then a wild animal. ~ Chief Joseph.
Powerful Native American Quotes
Let us put our minds together and see what future we can make for our children. ~ Chief Joseph.
A brave man dies but once, a coward many times. ~ Iowa.
Be still, and the earth will speak to you. ~ Navajo proverb.
I represent more Native Americans than anyone else in Congress. ~ Rick Renzi.
How smooth must be the language of the whites, when they can make right look like wrong, and wrong like right. ~ Black Hawk, Sauk.
I always see America as really belonging to the Native Americans. Even though I’m American, I still feel like a visitor in my own country. ~ Nicolas Cage.
Children learn from what they see. We need to set an example of truth and action. ~ Howard Rainer.
True leadership is only possible when character is more important than authority. ~ Joseph Marshall.
Strong Native American Quotes
One does not sell the land people walk on. ~ Crazy Horse.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. ~ Chief Tecumseh.
I would have been better pleased if you had never made such promises than that you should have made them and not performed them. ~ Shinguaconse.
Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~ Native American.
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life, so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. ~ White Elk.
When the Earth is sick, the animals will begin to disappear, when that happens, The Warriors of the Rainbow will come to save them. ~ Chief Seattle.
Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of the little children are pure. ~ Black Elk.
Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture your heart. ~ Native American.
Treat the earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children. ~ Native American.
Wise Native American Quotes
The land is sacred. These words are at the core of your being. The land is our mother, the rivers our blood. Take our land away and we die. That is, the Indian in us dies. ~ Mary Brave Bird.
We shall live again; we shall live again. ~ Comanche Ghost Dance Song.
Those that lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. ~ Blackfoot.
Everyone who’s born in the Western Hemisphere is a Native American. We are all Native Americans. ~ Russell Means.
Be gentle as the spring rain. ~ Native American.
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave. ~ Dakota.
I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I can go everywhere with a good feeling. ~ Geronimo.
So these were the 83 top quotes about Native Americans.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on American Revolution quotes and Redhead quotes.
